The AIF have hitherto accomplished nothing to be
compared in importance

with the work they have in hand just now.

I was never so proud of being an Australian as I
am today – The gallant

bearing and joyous spirit of the men at the
prospect of a fight thrills you

through and through. You simply cannot despair or
be downhearted.

Whatever the odds against, you can feel their
spirits rising the more the

danger seems to threaten. It is glorious indeed
to be with them.

In the book I say that what the Australian
soldiers did in 1918 both in this period I™m

describing, when they were prominent in the
defence against the German onslaught, and

also later that year, when they spearheaded the
offensive that brought eventual victory.

what the Australian soldiers did in 1918 prompts
the conclusion that Australians were

influencing the destiny of the world in 1918 more
than Australians had ever done before

and perhaps more than Australians have ever done
since.

Pompey was well aware at the time that what was
happening in March and April 1918

was the climax of the whole conflict, and he was
tremendously fired up as his brigade was

rushed here and there to fortify vulnerable
sectors in the British defence. When he found

that some undisciplined soldiers were
concentrating less on resisting the oncoming

Germans than on hopping into the grog left in the
suddenly deserted estaminets and

chateaux, he took characteristically assertive
action. After a British officer was caught in

the act, Pompey arranged for a notice to be
issued declaring that the next officer caught

looting would be summarily and publicly hanged,
and his body would be left swinging as

a deterrent. He knew this order might well be
illegal, but desperate situations require

desperate remedies.

There certainly was no more trouble with looting.
As Pompey (who was a solicitor in

civilian life) observed afterwards, ‚no-one
seemed inclined to make of themselves a test

case under the circumstances.

During this phase of desperate defence his men
had to march all night to the village of

Hedauville. He was assured they would find it
vacated for them to occupy. When Pompey

arrived with his men, tired and wet after
marching all night, he called at the Hedauville

chateau at 9.30am. As he told the Senate in 1921:

I found the chateau literally packed with
[British] officers, all of whom were

still in bed. – [The] staff officer who
appeared to be in command – was

still in a very undressed state, stated that he
had no orders whatever about

leaving, and until he did so he could not move
– By this officer not being

ready to move out, [my] men were forced to halt
in the fields, sodden with

rain falling at the time, and await his
convenience. Not wishing to appear the

least unreasonable, I told him – I would try to
get a building for

headquarters, and leave [my] men outside until
midday, whilst he was getting

orders.

Pompey then went on to tell the Senate that
during the intervening hours he sent his

intelligence officer out to try and make contact
with the British division this detachment

belonged to. This officer reported back to
General Elliott that when he inquired about the

detachment ensconced at Hedauville he was given
unprintable replies about its

performance. Pompey responded decisively. As he
told the Senate,

I then sent for the [British] staff captain, and
asked him had he received any

orders yet. He replied that he had not. I asked
why he had not telephoned or

gone to [a nearby village] to find out. He
replied that he had no telephone. I

told him that I had a telephone he could use, and
then, being irritated by his

listless manner and want of interest, and by the
fact that my men were being

drenched to wait his convenience, I told him that
I had formed a most

unfavourable opinion from what I had heard of his
division, and that his own

want of energy and initiative were strong
confirmation of what I had heard,

and that unless he got orders and moved his men
out of the village

immediately, I would assume command and march
them out of the village, if

necessary, under arrest.

This assertiveness had the desired effect. Before
long, this British detachment had moved

out of Hedauville. As Pompey and his men were
settling in, however, the situation

changed dramatically once more. They were
directed to move immediately to another

vulnerable sector in the British defence about 20
miles away, and had to march all night

again.

Pompey recalled this memorable night in a Senate
speech in 1923:

I – have seen them triumph in battles, and have
greeted them beaten, but

never disgraced, returning from a stricken field
they were proud moments;

but I have never been prouder than when – we
marched, at night, 26 miles.

– When I arrived at General – Monash's
headquarters – his staff officer

said ‚They will never get here. But at the
appointed hour the whole brigade

marched in intact, in close and beautiful order
–

Now back to what Pompey was revealing in 1921:

Honourable senators will hardly believe the
sequel, but this is what happened.

Three weeks later General Hobbs [who was Pompey's
immediate superior]

called to see me. He said ‚I want to speak to
you privately, and took me out

into the garden. He then said to me, ‚General,
I have instructions to tell you

that – you will receive no further promotion
[because] of your conduct to

[British] officers. When he said that, I turned
away rather dumbfounded, and

he [patted] me on the back and said ‚I have got
to tell you that, but by God

you were right. It turned out that this staff
officer [at Hedauville] was the son

of a Duke, [and complained about] my conduct, and
you see the result.

To appreciate what a bombshell this kind of
speech was, you need to bear in mind the

strict censorship that applied during the war
period. These were extraordinary revelations,

and there were a lot more of them with Pompey on
the warpath fighting the war all over

again in the Senate.

He was indeed a remarkable soldier and a
remarkable senator.

From an interview with Ross mcMullin:

Question : Do
you think that Pompey's death came about because of his personality

and his frustrations? Could you speak about the
causes that led to him suiciding?

Ross McMullin : Pompey
Elliott suicided in 1931. He was still a senator at the time.

How did that come to happen? I think it could be
said that by 1931 he had demonstrated

that he had an obsessive personality and that he
was prone to great troughs of

depression and, of course, during the war he had
plenty to be depressed about. A

psychiatrist professor told me that this sort of
thing can run in families profound

depression leading to suicide. Pompey's elder
sister suicided in Ballarat in 1894,

Pompey's niece was to later suicide in the 1960s.
As to why it happened in 1931 rather

than at some other time, I think there are four
possible factors.

The first is what he called his ‚supersession
grievance, being superseded both in 1918

and 1921 by those other generals. He felt that
profoundly, and was still troubled by it

greatly in the 1920s. A chapter title in my book
comes from a letter that he wrote, in

which he said that ‚the injustice has actually
coloured all my post-war life.He really felt

that acutely.

Second, it was the time of the Great Depression,
the great economic depression. For

someone of his political views, it was as if the
entire system was on the brink of imminent

collapse. He died in March, and he was the third
prominent Melbourne solicitor to suicide

in 1931. The great upset, distress and turmoil of
that time led to him feeling deluded even

about his own personal finances. He was quite
financially secure, but he didn't feel it.

Third of the four triggers was post-traumatic
stress syndrome, as of course we call it

today, though we didn't then. Pompey obviously
had encountered terrible sights and

horrors through being a front line commander and
from being so prominently in the front

line, even as a general. But this was not the
only kind of thing that cropped up in his

nightmares and flashbacks during the 1920s. There
had also been times when he had to

order subordinates to do particular tasks. Even
though, when he had these flashbacks and

went over it afterwards, he remained convinced
that someone had to do them at the time

and it was appropriate tactically, and that he
had to, as a general, order someone to do

them, he still terribly regretted the outcome of
those instances where, of course, some of

the men didn't come back.

The fourth trigger was that he™d had a severe
bang on the head in a horse riding accident a

few months before he died. As his relatives were
piecing together the sequence of events

afterwards, and trying to make sense of it all,
they thought that that incident was perhaps

more serious than they had thought at the time.
Those four factors together influenced his

suicide.

Back home after the war, he was overlooked in Australia's
postwar defence plans, became a Nationalist senator and campaigned over defence,
for returned servicemen and in his own interest. The onset of the Depression
added to his own depression. So did the nightmares reliving war horrors.

Career Summary

Date of birth

1878-06-19

West Charlton, VIC

Date and unit at enlistment (ORs)

1898

Enlisted as a private in a squadron of the 4th Victorian
Contingent, the Imperial Bushmen.

Date of honour or award

1900

Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his participation
in an attack on a Boer force which resulted in the capture of 33 men and
54 horses.

Date commissioned

1900

Obtained a commission as a lieutenant in the 2nd
Berkshire, but chose to remain with the Australians.

Other

1900-05

Arrived in South Africa and promoted to corporal.

Date returned to Australia

1901-07

Other

1901-08

Sailed again for South Africa and joined the Border
Scouts.

Date and unit at appointment (Officers)

1904-03

Enlisted in the 5th Australian Infantry Regiment
and commissioned as a lieutenant.

Date promoted

1911

Appointed major and second in command of the
Regiment.

Date promoted

1913-07-01

Appointed lieutenant colonel and commanding officer
of the 58th Battalion, Essendon Rifles.

Other

1914-08

Selected to command the 7th Battalion when the AIF
was formed.

Date promoted

1915-03-01

Appointed to brigadier general and given the task
of organising the 15th Brigade.

Date wounded

1915-05-25

Wounded in the ankle at Gallipoli and evacuated.

Other

1915-06-02

Returned to the 7th Battalion.

Other

1915-08

Evacuated to England with pleurisy.

Other

1915-11-22

Returned to the 7th Battalion.

Other

1915-12-18

Evacuated from Gallipoli with a sprained ankle.

Other units

1916-01-24

Appointed to command the 1st Brigade.

Date promoted

1916-03

Appointed Brigadier General and commanding officer
of 15th Brigade.

Date of honour or award

1917-01-01

Gazetted Companion of the Order of Saint Michael
and Saint George.

Date of honour or award

1917-02-15

Gazetted Russian Order of St Anne - 3rd Class.

Date of honour or award

1917-03

Awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Date of honour or award

1918-06-03

Gazetted a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Date of honour or award

1919-01-07

Gazetted French Croix de Guerre.

Date returned to Australia

1919-05-05

Other

1919-09

Reappointed to command the 15th Militia Brigade.

Other

1921

Requested to be placed on the unattached list.

Other

1926

Reappointed again to command the 15th Brigade.

Date promoted

1927-08

Promoted to major general and appointed to command
the 3rd Division.

Date of death

1931-03-23

Victoria

The Footballer

The slaughter of Australian soldiers that began 88 years ago
this weekend claimed the lives of many famous footballers. Few were better known
than George Elliott.

A dashing defender, Elliott captained the University side that competed in the
VFL in the years leading up to World War I. He represented Victoria at the 1911
interstate football carnival.

His contribution, both as a player and medic, at that carnival was commended.

It was no different when he became a captain of a different
kind in the Australian medical corps after graduating as a doctor in 1915. As
the 56th Battalion’s medical officer, ‘Doc’ Elliott’s commitment and
courage were again highly acclaimed, earning him the Military Cross.

His life was tragically cut short on September 25, 1917, when he was
accompanying the 56th Battalion forward at the battle of Polygon Wood (in
Belgium). He was struck by a shell and fatally wounded.

Nearby was George’s brother, the legendary commander, Brigadier-General Harold
‘Pompey’ Elliott. Charismatic and controversial, tempestuous and volatile,
Pompey was the Australians’ most famous fighting general.

He was exceptionally brave, a brilliant tactician, and revered by his men. No
one was more instrumental in transforming looming disaster into stunning triumph
at Polygon Wood than Pompey Elliott, who owed his nickname to the VFL.

Early in 1915, during training in Egypt before the Gallipoli landing, some of
the men under Harold Elliott’s command, which included a Carlton contingent,
bestowed Fred Elliott’s nickname on their famous commander. It endured.

On that fateful September day in 1917, Pompey was at his headquarters directing
the complex assault that would make Polygon Wood a brilliant Australian victory,
when he was told that George had been hit.

With his brother dying only 400 metres away, Pompey had to summon all his
considerable willpower to stay where he was, as he wrote afterwards: “They
brought the news to me when I was tied to my office directing the fight and I
could not go to him though they said he was dying,” he said.

“I hope never to have such an experience again. The effort to concentrate my
thoughts on the task of defeating the enemy as the messages came through
revealing each move and the changing phases of the battle to me seemed as time
went on to turn me into stone, and half the time I was like a man
sleepwalking.”